Finery, the US-based creator of an online wardrobe platform, raised $5m on Tuesday in a seed round featuring fashion e-commerce company Farfetch and BBG Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of online media group Oath. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and included C Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Halogen Ventures and angel investors Cotter Cunningham, Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg.
US-based wound and skin analysis startup Tissue Analytics secured $5m of series A financing on Tuesday from investors including internet group Tencent, medical device maker Molnlycke Health Care and healthcare providers Intermountain Healthcare and Penn Medicine. The round, which was led by investment firm DigiTx Partners, included health and urban technology accelerator Dreamit and followed a $750,000 Tencent-led seed round in 2015 and $1.9m in debt financing the following year, according to a securities filing.
Acorns, the US-based micro-investment app developer backed by online payment technology firm PayPal and e-commerce firm Rakuten’s Fintech Fund, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Rise Fund, an investment fund managed by private equity group TPG. The company had previously raised a total of $62m from investors also including Greycroft Partners, E.Ventures, Sound Ventures, Garland Capital and Math Venture Partners.
BigFoot Retail Solutions, the India-based owner of e-commerce services platform KartRocket, has raised Rs 266m ($4.1m) in a round that included a Rs 200m investment by Bertelsmann India Investments, a subsidiary of media group Bertelsmannn, and contributions from Nirvana Digital India Fund, Nirvana Digital Investment and Beenext, VCCircle reported on Wednesday. The company had previously raised a total of $10m from the same investors as well as 500 Startups across rounds in 2014 and 2016.
Engie New Ventures, the strategic investment arm of energy utility Engie, has joined financial and investment services provider Macquarie Group to provide £3m ($4.1m) of funding for UK-based energy storage system supplier Connected Energy. The company, which had previously been financed by grant funding, will use the investment to meet demand for its systems, which utilise used electric vehicle batteries, in the UK and Europe.
Marketing technology provider Zeta Global invested an undisclosed amount in US-based digital advertising platform Visto on Tuesday as part of a strategic partnership agreement. Founded in 2006 and formerly known as Collective, Visto had previously raised approximately $79m in equity financing and $30m in debt from investors including consumer electronics producer Samsung, diversified conglomerate Cox Enterprises’ Cox Media subsidiary, Columbia Partners, Accel, Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital.
Israel-based public transportation ticketing app developer HopOn has closed a $3.5m series A round featuring public transport operator Dan Public Transportation, Globes reported yesterday. Dan also participated in HopOn’s seed round, according to Globes, and has allowed customers to pay for trips using the app since 2014, at which point the company had raised a total of $700,000 in funding from investors including its founders.
Carmaker Daimler has paid an undisclosed amount for a stake of about 10% in UK-based mapping technology developer What3words as part of a funding round of undisclosed size, and will adapt the company’s location address system for its software. What3words had raised a total of $12.5m in funding as of an $8.5m series B round in mid-2016 led by logistics services provider Aramex that included chipmaker Intel’s corporate venturing unit, Intel Capital, as well as Force Over Mass Capital and Mustard Seed.
Elliot, the US-based creator of a software platform that can track and manage marketing performance and organisation, has secured $3m in a seed round featuring freight optimisation platform Flexport. The round was co-led by venture capital funds Bowery Capital and Susa Ventures and included Acceleprise, Bam Ventures and SV Angel.
Lavendla, the Sweden-based operator of an online funeral services platform, received SEK23m ($2.9m) yesterday in a round featuring Bonnier Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of media company Bonnier, and a SEK15m investment by private equity firm eEquity. The round came after Lavendla had raised approximately $240,000 from Springfield Project in 2015, and Bonnier and eEquity took a stake in the company sized at between 20% and 30% according to Nordic 9.
XR Games, a virtual game development subsidiary formed by gaming consulting and digital services provider Dubit in 2017, has raised $2.6m from VC firm Global Merces’ Media Fund. XR is working on games based on existing intellectual property, and the deal followed an undisclosed amount of seed capital from angel investor Nigel Douthwaite.
Financial planning software provider Money Forward has provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Indonesia-based human resources and financial accountancy platform developer Sleekr, Tech in Asia reported on Monday. Naoya Kanesaka, Money Forward’s chief financial officer, told Tech in Asia it had previously invested between $2m and $3m in five companies, but that the Sleekr deal, which came after Sleekr raised $35,000 in seed funding in 2014, was “comparably larger”.
Germany-based recruitment services provider Firstbird received €2m ($2.4m) in funding on Tuesday from investors including online recruitment platform JobCloud, Investiere.ch, and European Super Angels Club. JobCloud had previously paid an undisclosed sum for a 7.9% stake in Firstbird, a graduate of software producer Microsoft’s Berlin Accelerator, in June 2016.
Depsys, a Switzerland-based provider of decentralised energy management software for utilities, secured CHF2m ($2.1m) on Monday from Statkraft Ventures, the strategic investment arm of energy company Statkraft, as well as VC fund manager VNT Management and family office Wecken & Cie. Statkraft Ventures had previously led the company’s $3.1m series A round in mid-2016, investing alongside VNT Management and environmental technology-focused fund One Creation.
ToneTag, an India-based business payment software developer backed by conglomerate Reliance Industries, raised $1.3m from investment vehicle Tropical Star in September 2017, Inc42 has reported, citing a regulatory filing. Reliance Venture Asset Management, a subsidiary of Reliance, invested $1m in ToneTag in 2015, before the company added an undisclosed amount from angel investors Arun Seth, TV Mohandas Pai, Anand Chandrasekaran and Deepak Ghaisas in late 2016.
Cemex Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for building materials supplier Cemex, has invested in Ipsum, the Chile-based developer of a planning platform for construction projects, as part of a $1m funding round that also included VC fund Manutara Ventures. The round followed an investment by Wayra, an accelerator and VC fund subsidiary of telecommunications company Telefónica, in 2016.
Online education provider Manipal Global Education Services has led a pre-series A round of undisclosed size for Butterfly Innovations, the operator of educational institution communications service CollPoll, VCCircle reported on Wednesday. The round included undisclosed angel investors and followed an October 2017 round sized at just over $300,000 that was led by Sprout Angels.
Wayra Chile, part of Telefónica’s early-stage investment network, has provided $500,000 of funding to three local startups. The recipients were Latin America-focused online television streaming platform Zapping TV, digital data backup technology developer Cloner and PostedIn, a platform that allows businesses to crowdsource marketing content.
Employee reimbursement platform developer Zeta has paid an undisclosed amount for am minority stake in PeopleStrong HR Services, the India-based developer of a cloud software platform for human resources functions, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday. Zeta invested the cash as part of a strategic and commercial partnership deal that will involve the companies jointly launching an HR app.
New Zealand-based coding technology startup CodeLingo has secured NZ$540,000 ($390,000) in funding from Reinventure, the VC firm sponsored by financial services firm Westpac, as well as fellow VC firm Right Click Capital, Startups Daily reported on Monday. CodeLingo will use the capital to grow its team as it looks to expand the business and further develop its technology.
US-based distributed energy technology startup LO3 Energy closed a series A round of undisclosed size last month with an investment by industrial product and appliance maker Siemens. The capital was added to funding supplied by Centrica Innovations, the corporate venturing arm of energy utility Centrica, and VC firm Braemar Energy Ventures in October 2017.
Spain-based indoor location technology developer Situm received an undisclosed amount of funding last month from Amadeus Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of travel and tourism technology provider Amadeus, as well as VC firm Unirisco and VC fund manager Xesgalicia. Situm’s technology works as an indoor global positioning system, allowing users to navigate spaces using their smartphones.
NanoCellect, a life sciences equipment producer that counts genomics technology provider Illumina as an investor, has raised $250,000 from University of California, Riverside’s Highlander Venture Fund. The company had previously raised approximately $12.3m in financing from investors including Illumina’s strategic investment vehicle, Illumina Ventures, as well as life sciences technology producer Agilent Technologies, Anzu Partners, Vertical Venture Partners, FusionX Ventures and 5 Prime Ventures.